I was the exact same way, I drove my car stock for probably about 3 weeks and then I got the access port in the intake. Definitely a huge difference. Hopefully within the next year I'm going to get an aftermarket intercooler, JP pipe and switch to a stage two tune.
I have a 2015 WRX and you're not driving it right - get it in 1st or 2nd gear, gas it to 4500 rpm, shift and there's plenty of torque throughout the power band after that. You have to get the turbo spinning big time before getting into another gear. It took me about 5,000 miles to get the hang of it - be safe.
@@jfielder8656 What are 0 - 60 times on a stock tune 2015+ WRX? I own a 2019 and while I adore the car, I have a hard time believing it's 5.5ish seconds. The car is quick, but it feels slower than my 2011 128i 6MT which did about 5.7 seconds 0 60.
I’m 18 and just upgraded to a 2018 wrx. Before I drove a 2009 civic ex, there was a hugeee power increase (obviously) which is what I was looking for. Hope this helps anyone that was wondering.
@@jonathanb1987 If you plan on modding the car the Sti EJ engine is a bad choice it can’t even handle as much power. But yes if you are not modifying the car the sti is better.
@@AJTurbo yeah I don't plan on modifying it. Too many people mod them and don't enjoy the car the way it was supposed to be. Not all fun is straight line speed. If you try to find older unmodified STIs they fetch a premium. Also, with the way electric cars are going to be pushed, it will be a "relic" with a manual gearbox and hydraulic power steering in the world of electric cars.
This is a known issue. To prevent knock it pulls timing quite a lot. Lowering the ignition temps helps. 2-3 gallons of E85 cleans up the tune ALOT. It even adds some power without the warranty killing access port.
@@MrNathanchatterton you cannot exceed an E30 mixture or you can have a problem. I traded in the WRX over a year ago so I can't comment on it now. Do some additional research. there are a lot of people doing it without messing up their engines. Your Market May vary.
@Nathan Chatterton yep I've been doing it here and there for about a year now 3 gallons of e and the rest full with 91 could definitely feel the difference
Power dips right in the middle. It picks up again after 4500-5000 rpm. Had a similar reaction until I drove it more. If you can keep it at 5000+ it feels a lot better
It really suprises me. I had a stock 02 WRX and that damn car had nothing under 3000 rpm and after that it pulled alll the way to redline. Damn regulations!
I find my 19 is all go once in 3rd gear. You can tell the ecu map keeps the throttle very tame until you're moving. Going from 91 to 94 really helped that rpm dip at 4000.
Everyone who sort of babies it during the break-in gets disappointed in the same way. The way the car falls flat is almost unacceptable. Subaru doesn't let you really test drive it, and everyone thinks the car will pull at least decently all the way; until they are 1,000mi in, and then it's too late. It needs a tune, and that means losing the warranty.
Man, I'm in this process myself. I absolutely adore the car in so many ways, but I definitely want more power. Problem is, I don't trust turbocharged engines and bought an extended warranty from the dealer. I never buy warranties, but this one was cheap enough and it makes me happy to know that I can fix my baby for the next decade whenever I need to. I'm thinking about getting an exhaust and intake...warranty should be safe there.
Shouldn't have been disappointed. You're looking for STI performance, but you're not driving an STI. That WRX that you're driving does exactly what it says it should do. Plus... you still have to learn how to drive it correctly. It definitely has a lot more to give then what you're getting.
Just bought a 19 brand new drove it off the lot with a dozen miles on it and my peak boost is 21.5 Someone's out raising the boost on these things before they're sold or straight from factory to show what it can get up to.
It is a boost surge in the WRX. I have one if you really get on the gas and let off at 4k the car will surge the boost up to above 20lbs. Stock it does not make over 20psi
Dude, you da man! I was laughing so hard during this in appreciation for your honesty. I bought one about 6 months and have been noticing all these downfalls of a stock tune. I just couldn’t put it to words but this video describes it all. I will definitely be upgrading to stage 1. Appreciate the review.
Ya this is a known issue with the stock WRX. High end just drops like a bucket of led. Still fun, but a bit disappointing. If you don't care about the warranty/don't have crazy power goals you can turn this thing into a beast quick. And for a cheaper price than the STI stock would have cost. Tune it and get a grimmspeed, 3 port EBCS. Those two alone will help a lot, if you want to really add power than a new down-pipe and cat-back. Cold Air intake, a bigger inter-cooler and a pitch-stop bracket will have you looking at around 310 WHP. Flex fuel kit and boom close to 350 WHP. All bolt-ons.
It’s definitley the stock tune. I’ve got an aftermarket intake and turbo-back exhaust with a dyno tune and the car completely wales up, ~300hp, power dip mostly gone, no rev hang and sounds so good.
The stock tune was weird and really inconsistent. Sometimes it made power to redline, sometimes it just fell after 4k. Even if it made the power it was really choppy and struggled to keep boost from fluctuating. It's not that the car is slow, it just runs poorly with the stock tune and doesn't feel like it's going fast. Plus the stock tune was prone to knocking, which would make it pull timing way too often and it'd lose even more power and it felt like driving a corolla. I definitely recommend at least a stage 1 tune if you aren't going to do any other mods.
Sergi Rodas I think you'll be pleased with the MA performance stage 1 tune. I reccomend it. I was... until i decided that i needed MOAR powah, and opted to do thier stage 2 package. Now its a little mini monster.
You also have to understand they're small turbochargers, which always have quicker spool times, then they fall flat at high rpms. It's the same thing with my Mazdaspeed3, which is surprisingly quick being front wheel drive stock.
I live in Ventura County where it is usually cold. I'm talking temps in the 60 to 70 degree range. My WRX pulls very hard if I get on it and I have already driven mine for 9k miles. I have a 2017 premium and I know the fall on your face feeling it tends to give off if you just jump on it. I have had some great hard pulls with over boost regularly and I am happy with the power. I have peaked at 22PSI boost and it is most likely due to the cooler temps in my area. I also didn't buy my WRX for it to be fast since I am a mustang guy so all things considered I am very happy with my daily. Maybe if this wasn't meant to be your daily, but your race care you should have purchased the STI, not worth the extra 10K IMHO.
I just got a 2019 wrx about 6 months ago i have 4k miles... i realized flooring it in this car does nothing. I shift into second and slowly get it up to about 3k then start wailing on it lol. Never flooring it fully tho
@@davidkang1277 ayy nice bro! i upgraded to a 2021 sti yall. Never did get the WRX tuned, but let me tell you that transmission makes all the difference👌
it doesnt fall on its face after 4.. the stock tune alwayd pulls timing a re adjusts it-self. do a pull to 6700rpm and youll see after 5000 it picks up again. stock tune is def not the best but this engine pulls to redline AFTER 5
When you buy a Subaru and you don't know shit about it. WRX is low end power, STI is top end power. You're not gonna be surprised by power in a WRX when you been driving it for 1000 miles already.
Not sure why all the down votes here. Your assessment is 100% correct. I had a 2015 WRX and, from the factory, it had the same garbage tune. You spend all that time being ginger with it, basically feeling all it has to offer in the low end. You think it'll be a BAMF when you finally get to give it the beans, then you finally mash it and find out oh.... the torque curve falls of Mt Everest. That said... open up the FA20DIT's ability to bring air In and blast it back Out, give it a solid tune, and it'll give you a pretty nice linear pull all the way to the red. Stage 2 on these is pretty decent. I went to a 2018 STi later on and the Stage 2 WRX was just a tad faster than the STi stock, and had a very similar power curve to the STi. Also got way better MPG than the STi :P
Get any b58 vehicle with awd…its a insane amount of a jump. Came from a wrx and felt the same way you did. Im sitting at 500 at the crank with bolt ons mostly and awd…running mid 11’s. Best was 11.4
To be fair...the car is only making slightly over 200hp to the wheels. There's alot of parasitic loss. AWD also doesn't have the same "seat of the pants" feel as a FWD or RWD car. My STi always felt slower than my 2005 IS300, but it wasn't.
That's the thing no one tells you about a stock sti, they feel pretty tame even if you're going fast as hell. Hence the turning culture so it feels fast when you're going really fast
these wrx with 268hp can easily be upgraded with simple tunes and bolt ons that doesnt cost an arm or leg. plus i feel the FA20 motors are abit more reliable compared to the EJ... my opinion.
Huh??? Awd cars feel way more seat of the pants feel. Every shitty fwd car i owned (civic si, gti, st) all sucked ass launching. Quick on some rolling pulls if thats what you meant but I finally went for a m240i xdrive modded to 500 crank and its launch is DISGUSTING. Rwd is best for goofing off and track but awd is ultimately the way to go.
FYI Wrx and Sti engines are already “broken in” during production., you don’t have to wait to a certain mileage before you launch them after you buy it
wrong .It still needs many more mile before everything beds in completely .Youd be pretty dumb to redline the car hard up everyday after you buy it brand new
I have driven the 2018 and it's fast. You sound like you had unrealistic expectations it's not a Nissan GTR it's a rally car ment to shredd dirt roads.
I have an STI now and the STI was a lot more satisfying off the lot. I came to realize many people say after a good tune the WRX is much better and it definitely was. I eventually went stage 2 and its a whole new world
Should’ve bought an STI I test drive both each twice and fell in love with the ejs torque and the stis upgrade options that come standard also got a sweet deal on the limited
Ditto on getting an AP to get rid of the loss of power, Rev hang and make boost more consistent. I know you shouldn't have to do this on a brand new car but the stock tune blows. I flashed my 18 1500 miles in. No regrets.
I noticed the same thing with my car after break-in. However, it seems now that the car pulls hard again after 5k. There's more of a dip at 4000. The pull after 5k has seemed to increase as I've gotten further from the break-in period.
I’ve test drove both the WRX and The STi before the purchase and end up going with the STi. The WRX was just not up to par and felt like I was just driving a Camry or something along that line. The STi felt more engaging and raw from the get go. The STi genuinely put a smile on my face vs the WRX did not and I don’t want to be in a situation of “damn I should have gotten the STi”. I have my STi for 8 months now and don’t regret a minute of it.
@THE KongMan - That's what happened to me. I bought a 17 WRX and after a couple of months I wished I had gotten the STi. So, I ended up trading it in for a STi and I don't regret it. The clutch feels better, the gearing is better, and the sound is AWESOME!!! But I did like the turbo kicking in at 2500 RPM with the WRX.
STI is purely cosmetic. If i wanted to spend "STI money" id get a BMW 335i or 2018 Mustang 5.0 and smoke the shit out of the STI. Subaru is smoking crack if they think a 15 yr old motor that has ringland problems is worth $45K. To each their own i guess..
k20a2toofast4u You sir are wrong by simply saying it’s purely cosmetic. Just like saying the civic Si is the same as a civic EX, all they did was added some ivtech stickers to it. Lol Sure there are many cars out there that will smoke an STi all day long, but the STi works for me and Camaro SS 1LE and Mustang 5.0 doesn’t (just to name a few). BTW you can get an STi for about $35k not $45k just saying. #teamringland lol
THE KongMan ive done my research before getting the my car. (For me) an sti doesnt justify the price and performance. A new base sti with tags, titles ect ect blah blah is around $39K just shy of $40K or at $40K not $35K.
Well I mean.. what were you expecting? It’s a 2.0l turbo powering all 4 wheels.. I’m thinking that’s about 230 to the wheels? It’s not a supercar. I’m not trying to troll but just saying it how it is.
Ryan Schwinghammer i wasn’t expecting it to be super car fast but wasn’t it expecting to just completely poop itself after 4K. I tuned it now tho and definitely much better
Ryan Schwinghammer yes. Just stage 1 (stock, no mods) tune. Makes a huge difference. Will be uploading a video soon. Instead of it slowing down at 4K, it holds the power and keeps boosting until red line
Sergi Rodas Awesome. I figured that would help a lot. I had a 15’ STi and did the stage 1 with the COBB accessport and it made it like a whole new car. I don’t know why subaru uses such a conservative tune from the factory. Sold that car and now regret it. Getting a WRX this time though.
i went in my friends 2019 wrx and a 2016 mustang gt and the pulls are not even comparable lmfao haha idk i gotta test drive a sti still but im leanin towards v8 big time
I bought the cvt wrx a bout 5 months ago and honestly it’s not as bad as any of these RU-vid reviewers say, listen it does fall off a bitbut you feel it re peak in book after about 5500-6k rpm so for the half second that you find yourself « out of boost » It’s not that bad from what I’ve heard just bring it to a reliable tuner and fix the stock tune on the écu that’s the only issue
Personally I don’t have an issue with it it’s very reliable I’ve beat the living shit out of this thing for 5 months and the only thing I’ve have to changed was a couple pcv valves on thé turbo
I feel your pain. I bought a 2018 wrx to have a fun 4 door winter car that also fits my kido because I dont drive my mustang in the winter and I have been so disappointed. I cant believe how slow it is. My wife's Toyota Highlander smokes my 18 wrx. Its so sad and embarrassing. Dont even bother taking on any soccer moms in any v6 sedans or suvs because they will laugh at you. Not to mention the rev hang from 1-4th gears is atrocious. It makes the car impossible to shift quickly when accelerating. The service manager at my dealership stated if enough people make official complaints about the way the car is hopefully Subaru will do a ecu update. Unfortunately he said that no one ever does because its all young kids that buy this car and the first thing they do is throw a tune on it and then they void their warranty. Im just too worried to do the same because there has been plenty of issues with my 2018 already at only 3500 miles.
Anthony Choueiry it’s pinging and having acceleration rattle, started at 800 miles sadly, went in the first month to get it checked out and finally checked it out at 6 month after talking to the GM
My 2019 wrx doesn't seem that way at all, pretty opposite actually. Mines like barely any low end power but up in like 4-5000 RPM it goes pretty good. but it has 91k on it so maybe as you get more miles you'll notice a difference?
I highly recommend tuning the car; the FA motors respond really well to mods and you'll enjoy the car a lot, lot more. Stage 2 WRX is faster than a Stage 2 STI just to put into perspective
Kian Palmer yeah I’m excited to do some power mods to the car. I got my access port today. A lot of people are taking my reaction to a stock WRX the wrong way. It truly is very slow on the top end. Fun on the low end tho
My 2020 also fell on it's face at 4k rpm. These only have 220HP, they lie and say 272, but that's to the crank, not the real wheel! HOWEVER, I paid about $5,000 (including labor) for #1 Cobb access port, #2 Perrin CAI, #3 Grimmspeed catted J-Pipe, #4 Nvidia Q300 exhaust #5 TGV / EGR delete , #6 Mishimoto top mounted intercooler, #7 Perrin charge pipe , and lastly #8 A pro tune. Now it gets 307HP at peek, TO REAL WHEELS! & it pulls all the way to 7k red line! Oh ya! This is what I expected from factory. I may upgrade turbo and flex fuel, but NEVER more than 400HP in the FA20 motors or they will blow! I might not upgrade turbo and flex because I want it to last, but at least now it's fast ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hyPuivMXzkc.html
Sounds almost exactly like my stock automatic 2009 civic coupe dx when I sorta rev like that at 1:46 in vid. Thought stock wrx with quad exhaust would make a difference but nvm 🤔 Little note: I may not know much about the wrx so I may be wrong about the general Wrx’s exhaust sound
They’ve definitely lost the DEEP boxer rumble. It’s there but to me just sounds different (I’m guessing because of the dual exhaust they have now causing a slight quieter tone)
For everyone talking about how their peak boost was around 19 when they got it off the lot, dont forget every car goes thru a test AT THE FACTORY. There's a good chance your dealership didnt rip the car, its probably a factory test thing they do to make sure everythings running properly
I would always first test drive a car. Because of the test drive I decided to buy my first 2004 wrx. And after a friend let me test drive a jdm sti v5 I was very impressed and I bought a v5 1999 one month later.
I recently bought a 2020 wrx premium, and I think the same after 4k rpm. Car has 28k miles but I still like the car. My first manual vehicle. Until I run the warranty out I wont be doing any power mods of course. This is why I have my 2008 donkey dick cammed g8 to enjoy for fast af boi moments.
I spent a few grand on mods and an e-tune and its still not as fast as I like. Its a great car and it definitely can put a smile on my face but after putting the money in and having it for 2 years, i would have rather not put the money in it
Just to note. If you redlined once or twice let's say at 250 miles. You would be fine you can't be dumping the clutch or redlieing for most of the break in that's when you are most likely fucked later on.
If anything, videos like this should have a lot more likes than dislikes, so that the manufacturer (in this case Subaru) could notice this video (and ones alike) and actually give heavy spec bumps in the next generation of the WRX and STi models.
Im running Cobb Big SF intake with enhanced heat shielding, OTS stage 1+ tune on accessport, invidia R400 catback, cobb LF bypass valve, and a gallon of E85 per full tank of 91.....no pro tune yet and this car is insane in my opinion. It is doing what I want for now.
I’ve had several cars and they were several different brands in my life so far and I remember my dad told me when I started modding my first car, he said son you can have fast you can have cheap and you can have reliable but you can only really have two of the three....one of the most accurately true statements I have heard over the years playing in the car world...
Wait, so you never test drove a WRX before driving it? (Even the people in comments) i t at drove a brand new WRX at the dealer with like 10 miles and the salesman didn't gaf for wot, so i did it...and was underwhelmed. That's after having test driven a friends stock '15 sti. World of a difference
To use a tool, appliance, instrument, software, car, ... you need to learn how to use it. The WRX does not tell you how to drive it. You have learn it. I can't believe all the responses here who used the wrong rev range to try and pull a fast time. Your car has has a twin scroll turbo. It works differently at low and high rpm ranges. In stock form, for low-end performance with good fuel economy in start-stop city driving, the turbo makes 2000-4000 rpm work for you. The low rpm part of the twin scroll shines. It gives you responsiveness, acceleration and good fuel economy. This vid is so funny because you pulled in the economy rpm range. 😂 What did you think was gonna happen? To turn a stock WRX into an animal on your rolling start you needed to push in your clutch, floor it to redline, and quickly, smoothly release the clutch into second while your revs are high while mashing the pedal to the metal. My stock 2015 WRX is an animal from 4500-6500 rpm. This is the high rpm range of the twin scroll where power and torque is maxing out. In a stationary or rolling run, when you launch from 4.5K+ rpm you have a stock animal on your hands. Even better on a tune. Twin scrolls at high rpm are their performance mode. If I want to smoke a car on a stopped or rolling start I dial up redline and choose the appropriate gear then choose the brutality of my release. Can't believe I had to teach you how to drive.
I just got my 18 wrx premium I’m at like 500miles I’ve pulled over 4krpm I don’t think it’s a issue but I felt the same power decrease after 4krpm I was a little disappointed my self but I still love the car
Sergi Rodas I wanna get that so bad but I just don’t wanna void my warranty would the dealership be able to notice it ? Also bro when I step on my clutch I feel like a little step right before the bottom so you feel that ??
If he never did a hard pull before 1000 miles why does the dash say his peak boost level was at 21.7? You can clearly see at 1:23, can you achieve peak boost without going over 4,000 RPM?
I broke my car in so well, then the dealership put an extra quart of oil in and ruined my engine. Now i drives like any other pos wrx. Ive had 2 dealers drive it and they say its fine. Pisses me off I have no low end or top.
After Subaru put an extra quart of oil in my car its begun to drive like shit and have lost all power I use to have. But my car use to pull hard to 5800
